At the swearing-in of new Madison County Sheriff John Mehr today, it was announced that John Lewoczko is Mehr's chief deputy.

Lewoczko applied to be interim sheriff in March after former sheriff David Woolfork retired. The County Commission didn't choose Lewoczko as interim sheriff, but Mehr has now hired him as chief deputy of the Sheriff's Office.

Lewoczko is a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security.

"He has the same mentality as far as treating people with the same ethics and beliefs that I do," Mehr said today. "We worked lots of cases over the years (together). He has an interest in people. He's spent his whole life serving people"

Lewoczko has said he has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience working as a special agent with the FBI, and later as a commissioned officer with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

He has said he worked closely with law enforcement throughout West Tennessee, including the Madison County Sheriff's Office and the Jackson Police Department, in his career.

He is the past president and a life member of the West Tennessee Criminal Investigators Association and is a commissioned officer for the state of Tennessee.

Lewoczko also worked as a forensic examiner for the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Va.